1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments relate to an image sensor.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Image sensors, in particular, complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, may include a frame comprising N×M unit pixels.
Such an image sensor may use a low resolution mode when it is necessary to increase a data processing rate (for example, in a moving image mode). In the low resolution mode, not all unit pixels may output signals. In other words, only some of the unit pixels may output signals. The low resolution mode of the image sensor may be implemented using a sub-sampling mode and a binning mode.
In order to operate the image sensor at a resolution corresponding to ¼ of full resolution, for example, in the sub-sampling mode, outputs may be generated from N/2×M/2 unit pixels among a total of N×M unit pixels. In the binning mode, outputs of two or more unit pixels of the same color may be summed, and summed results may be output as an output value of one unit pixel.
In the binning mode, it may be necessary to use a separate memory for storing outputs of unit pixels of the same color in order to achieve summing of the outputs. For this reason, the size of the image sensor may be unavoidably increased.